The Silence After the Fall

2025

36.7H x 25.6W cm

Pencil and color pencil on paper

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The artwork was inspired by A Separate Peace by John Knowles. In the book, Finny, a charismatic athlete, falls from a tree due to Gene's jealousy, which is driven by his own feelings of rivalry as his best friend. As a consequence of the fall, Finny loses his leg and can no longer play sports, meaning that he lost part of his identity. To portray this, I drew the figure of Finny climbing up a tree painted in gray, monotone colors. The color of the tree and the background portrays how Finny faces the harsh reality, eventually losing his innocence and passion. The colorful images of athletes depict Finny’s original ambition to be an athlete, and the shattered marks demonstrate how those innocent and pure imaginations are now completely broken. By creating the artwork, I sought to capture the boundary between innocence and reality, and the devastating consequences of misguided desire that can shatter a life.